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Question 6: Setting
I thought this was an interesting setting for the book, and of course was a key point that Geoff Ryman was trying to discuss with technology and culture. Would this book be much different if it was set in an entirely different culture? Small town North America perhaps, or a little village in Europe? Any other settings that might make the main story take a different angle?
Comments
I thought this was a really strong point. I don't know enough about that region to know if the culture was accurately presented, but it was convincing to . I think it would be difficult in either Europe or America to find a group that had remained sufficiently isolated for the story to develop, but for me this worked well.
I don't see why the book couldn't have worked in, say, a native community in the Americas or in eastern Europe. Or even a Mennonite community. Except that had the author chose those, he would have had to be a lot more careful about understanding the people being represented and portraying them well. That reason alone could explain making an imaginary central Asian country.
One aspect I was most curious about was the concept of 'unrolling one's mat' which came up again and again. Unfortunately by the time I clued in this was going to be a theme, I had already forgotten the original in-text explanation around the idea, and had no way of going back to find it.
But it immediately put me in mind of Kai Lung Unrolls his Mat by Ernest Bramah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai_Lung_Unrolls_His_Mat and that got me wondering if there was any greater significance to the term. In Kai Lung, the mat is unrolled so Kai Lung can sit and tell a story.
Maybe @BarnerCobblewood can shed some light on this.
early on we get
I guess we might say 'set out your pitch' as a western alternative?
Central Asia is an interest of mine, and from what I could see, the author did their homework. Since Central Asia is invisible to the USA - even after Afghanistan - we have little grasp of it. I thought the author tried hard to set this in a realistic feeling Central Asian community, and that paid off. I was far more interested in this than I would have been if setting in an Amish or Mennonite community, or in an Eastern European village. Part of the interest in Central Asia - especially the smaller 'stans - is that people come in from outside bringing their culture and their tech, and inevitably some stay and the mix churns, though little ever really changes. The fact that everyone in the village built the mosque whether or not they were Muslim is interesting. all the different ethnicities interacting is part of what made the village so interesting. Everyone sharing bits of their culture.
I did a little poking about and he did some travelling in Cambodia, and other works of his focus on that area of the world. It's unfortunately an area of the world I know next to nothing about, so I can't speak at all to Ryman's protrayal, but I thought it was kind of interesting that he chose to write an entire book from the perspective of a middle aged woman in a totally different area of the world, and overall it seemed to be done well enough (though I really could be off base given my ignorance on the area).
I guess for that reason (he could say almost anything and I would believe it!) it worked for me. Had it been set in a setting I was more familiar with I might have been analysing the veracity of the setting too much, and alongside the magic in the book, it could have been too much of a combination to keep me "in" the reading experience.
@clash_bowley this mix of people, though with "little change", does it happen more in these particular areas of the world rather than in other cultures? If so why? I really wish I knew more!
I couldn't tell you, @kcaryths! I find myself becoming fascinated by this or that area or time - usually for game purposes because I'm a game designer, but not always - and read in depth about it or, as I call it, 'go down the rabbit hole' and find out any information I can. So my information is in very select areas, and not in the least universal, and I know little of what is between them.
Fair enough!